Starting EAS with a sleepy baby

[Adelheid]

How does EAS work for a two month old who sleeps ALL THE TIME?
I should and am very thankful for her need to sleep but would still like to establish a better routine as I'm not sure how much longer she will keep this up.
Currently, she pretty much sleeps throughout the whole day with random moments of wakefulness. I do wake her if if its been more than three hours since her last feeding.
In the evening she'll be awake from 6pm-11pm/midnight during which she wants to feed non-stop or be carried around a lot.
I'm hoping EAS will get her to be more active during the day and will help me NOT nurse her to sleep which is what I am doing right now.
Even for feedings, I feed only one side at a time, bc she dozes off during BF.

So, how do I introduce EAS with a baby who sleeps so much?

[trimbler]

Heya, sorry probably an obvious question, but do you try to wake her after one side of a feed? Catch her just as she's dropping off and sit her up to burp her or something? Or is she just completely impossible to wake once she's off? I'm afraid I only had this issue within the first couple of weeks (if that!) but I used to sit them up, perhaps do a quick top and tail with cotton wool and water (didn't bother with the bath until later ) between sides, then they were ready for the second side. So I'd end up with more A in between feeding rather than after, but it did mean they got some A before the next S and then they'd kind of get a second wind - I just had to make sure to put them down early enough so as not to get OT! That first milk can make them really sleepy, but if you're able to rouse her and get her to feed more then she may get an energy boost to stay awake a bit afterwards. You can also try switching sides when she's starting to drop off, to keep her interest, and then go back to the first side, etc, but burping could also help, especially if she's uncomfortable by the evening, she may have ended up gassy from not burping enough at feeds due to falling asleep??

[Adelheid]

Yeah, she doesn't burp that much, so that could probably contribute to her fussiness.
Today, She was awake from:
8:30-11am
4pm-5:30pm
7pm and on. (she's catnapping right now)

Her A time is pretty long in the morning. Anywhere from 1:30-3hrs. Then she goes to sleep for a number of hours (she will wake to feed in between) and will be wide awake for an other chunk of time in the evenings. Often there's an other awake period some time in the afternoon too.
Should I just go with this? If she's been awake for three hours and is due for an other feeding, this will DEFINITELY put her straight to sleep during which getting both boobs in is impossible. She isn't fussy during her awake times.

[trimbler]

Personally, I'd try to reduce that morning A time, in the hope of getting more daytime feeds into her and hopefully in turn improve the evenings/nights. She probably won't always be so sleepy, so I'd try and work towards a routine which would be sustainable (with the inevitable tweaks) as she grows out of her sleepy phase. How does she usually get to sleep? Can you provide an environment which would help her to sleep after 1.5h max of awake time? The 'average' would actually be 1.5h max at 3mo, most 2mo wouldn't manage that long without getting OT. Perhaps try getting her to sleep after just 1h or 1h15. She may be coping well with it now, but in a few weeks you might find she starts short napping due to OT. I know some LOs don't show tired signs very clearly, but you may find yours is more ready to sleep than you think. My guess is that she's 'crashing' after that first long A time, but then not getting enough milk during the day, so she's doing all that feeding in the evening/night instead? So try waking her if it's been 3h since her last feed, do your best to keep her awake to get a good feed into her and a nice burp or two out of her, and then see if it helps with the evening madness... What do you think? Up to you of course when you feel ready to try this, I'm a bit reluctant to mess with a sleepy baby